Paris, June 25 - July 1, 2008

June 25, 2008



Ok, so we arrive at Beauvais Airport and then have to take the Metro to Paris, its a 2 hour ride so Jessie and I entertained ourselved by listening to a little Eddie Izzard on the way in. Once the train arrived in Paris we had to transfer to another line to get to our hotel, at 6:30pm on a Wednesday night the metro is unbelievably mobbed with people. It was tricky especially with Oretta, we managed to get it and then walked around the area of Place d'Opera for another 2 hours trying to find Rue Saint Agustine, which is where our hotel is. We get here and Oh No, they do not have a reservation for us until the next night. Not to worry they will find us a place, and they did, unfortunately we were so tired we did not take pictures of it, it was a small apartment, and Oretta did not feel good, it was the worst night sleep I did not have in a long time. No air conditioning so we had to keep the window open and of course there is no noise where we now live so that was interesting.



June 26, 2008



Wake up, try to take a shower, can seem to figure out the darned shower, I obviously have issues with European showers and think I am going to start taking pictures just so everyone can have a laugh. Any way took a sort of bath instead, packed up and walked the 3 blocks back to our original hotel, checked in dropped off our luggage and went out for the day. We bought tickets for the hop on hop off bus and got off at the Louvre, we spent about 4 hours in the Louvre, walked around the left bank for a bit and had lunch. Oretta was still not feeling well, she did not tell us this though, so we meandered down to the river to take a boat cruise. Of course this was a mistake and we got off and took her back to the hotel so she could get some rest. Then Adrian, Jessie and I went out and got a bite to eat. This was quite the journey, we tried to catch the hop on hop off, but we missed it by 5 minutes. So we started walking, we walked the breadth of the city, from Place d'Opera to the Tour Eiffel way on the other side of the city. I grew a lovely large blister on the bottom of my foot, and we never managed to catch the bus and it stoped running so we continued walking around the Tour Eiffel area until we found a restaurant for dinner, had a bite to eat and caught a cab to the hotel. By the time we got back to the hotel it was 12:00a.m. - it had been a long and mostly frustrating day - and finding a cab in Paris can be quite tricky. Actually there are cabs everywhere, finding one to take you someplace well.....



June 27, 2008



We got up at 8:00- I proceeded to flood the floor in the bathroom attempting to take a shower, cause of course there is no curtain. Oretta will stay in today as she still does not feel well, we go over to the boulanger and get a croissant and a simple sandwich to leave for her incase she wakes up and gets hungry. I think she has the flu or something. So off we go I insist that we ride the entire circuit of the hop on hop off before we decide to do anything. This does not make Adrian happy at all, because he feels we are missing out on valuable touring time.....oh well. We finally finish the circuit, and get off at the Museo d'Orsy. The Museaum was originally Paris' train station and the building is amazing. The collections housed here are Rodin, Monet, Manet, Whistler and many other very famous paintings that everybody knows. We spent several hours in the museum, Jessica seems to have pulled a leg from last nights major trekking and is not feeling well. We had lunch in the museum on the top floor, its a lovely restaurant and we will split up from here. Adrian and I are off to see Napolean's Tomb and Jessie is going back to the hotel. So we catch another hop on hop off and she catches one that will take her back to our hotel. As we drive around to get to our stop our path crosses the path of the bus she is on, unfortunately we never got close enough to take a picture of her, it was pretty funny. We got to the tomb at 6:05 and it closes at 6:00, the guy let us in anyway, so we got to see part of the dome and chapel where he is buried and we got to take pictures of his tomb from above, but were unable to go to the bottom to view it. We were very lucky to get to see it. By then Adrian had had enough and we took another bus back to the hotel. We checked in on Oretta and she said she was up for going to dinner with us, but Jessie was not, so we took Oretta to the lovely Italian Restaurant Jessie, Adrian and I went to on our first night here.



June 28, 2008



We are up at 7:30am because we have to catch a train out to Versailles. We go around the corner and get our breakfast (coffee and a croissant), Jessie is obviously still not herself, but she will buck up because she wants to see Versailles. I will feed her Advil all day, and Oretta is feeling up to going with us. The train takes about 30 minutes to get to the Village of Versailles, its a short walk from the train (maybe 15 minutes) the the Chateau and my first view of it I must say is quite overwhelming. Although the buildings may or may not be as big as the Louvre, the Louvre sits in the middle of the city so you really don't get the imposing picture like you do at Versailles. The line in the morning to get into the Chateau itself is much like the line you would see at the Vatican. We had purchased a package ticket, that gave us rountrip train, gardens, Le Petite Trianon, Le Grand Trianon, The Chateau and all open rooms. So we went into the gardens first and walked from there to Le Petite Trianon that took about 1 and a half hours. We left Oretta sitting at the Grand Canal in the gardens enjoying the fountains while we walked the rest of the way to the Trainon's and Marie Antoinettes village she built. The Trianon itself was closed but we got to walk through the space and through the village. It started to sprinkle so I Jessie and I went back to get Oretta, while, Adrian finished up in that area and met us at the restaurant at the Grand Canal; it never did actually rain, but I did not want to risk having her out in the rain so we met Adrian at the restaurant and had a lovely lunch. Then we slowly walked back up through the gardens toward the Chateau, surprisingly in the afternoon there is actually no entrance que to get in. So we went in found a place for Oretta to sit as she was tired by now and toured the Chateau. It was absolutely amazing. One thing I forgot to say yesterday, my husband likes to take pictures of pictures, however, I don't think I will be posting many of them to the photo stream. Anyway, we got done about 4:00pm, collected Oretta and walked back to the train. Unfortunately we got off at the wrong stop in the city so could not find a taxi. We opted to take the Metro, but, one thing that we did not take into account was that it was - is Pride weekend and the parade had just ended. The metro was a zoo and we needed to take to buses to get back to the hotel. This was really hard on Oretta and Adrian's temper was a bit short, but we made it back and then she started having leg cramps. I did not want her to be left alone so we went and got McDonalds for dinner. I can now honestly say that I have been in 4 major cities during pride weekend, and had McDonalds in 3 different countries. Might someday be my claim to fame.



June 29, 2008



Today Jessie will not go out with us she is not feeling well, and there was something about someones snoring being so bad that she did not sleep at all. Adrian, Oretta and I took a cab over to the Place d'Teatre and had breakfast, walked around I bought two sketches and a new overnight bag. We went to Sacre Couer, got there about 10 minutes before Mass, so Adrian and I got Oretta a seat for Mass and then waited outside while the preist and sisters processed in - it was beautiful and I think I would have liked to see the entire mass, but there was sightseeing to be done, including walking up the 300+ steps on the outside of the church to the top of the dome. I must say the 360's you get of the city are incredible and I do think that this is a walk well worth doing. After mass we took the funicular down to the bottom of Montremart and walked into the artists quarter where we had a great lunch and met another american that works for the US government. It was great fun sharing experiences with another american over lunch. We then wandered around this neighborhood until we crossed the Seine and stoped at the Bothella ice cream factory for an ice cream. It was good, not sure it compares to Italy and the gelato, but still good. Then Oretta and I caught the Metro all by ourselves, nobody on the train and no transfers it was much easier. We stopped at the corner boulanger becasue I knew Jessie had not eaten and got her a sandwich (the sandwich's here are fabulous). Adrian stayed behind to continue sightseeing, he should have made it to Notre Dame and I don't know what else, but will add more once I see all the pictures and can have him fill in what he did.

June 30, 2008

Today we got up and met Tato, Darlena, Elisa-Maria Torres and Maria Dominguez at the Grand Palais to view the Marie-Antoinette exhibition, it was amazing and fascinating. We spent about 4 hours altogether, it was the first time we had not pre-purchased tickets for something and the wait was about 1.5 hours, today was very warm in Paris and outside, no shade, I was really glad that Oretta had decided not to come with us. She had breakfast with us before we caught the cab over to the Grand Palais and then she and Adrian stopped by a Boulanger to pick up a sandwhich for her lunch before she came back to the hotel. After the exhibit we took the Metro over to the Place St. Germain for a little shoe shopping, Jessie got a pair of jeans, a shirt and a pair of black ballet shoes. I got the same ballet shoes and a lovely pair of sandals, in June and July here all the stores have major sales so we got really good deals. Then while were waiting for the restaurant to open for dinner we walked over to St. Sulpice Church, which is in the same neighborhood. It is the Church Dan Brown uses in the DaVinci Code, which holds a brass line in it that is the original Meridien Line from which all distances and times were calculated during the 17th Century, later moved to Greenwich, England. Also in the church is a large photograph of the Shroud of Turin, we could not figure out any discernable reason for the reproduction to be there, but it is apparently in at least 20 churches in Paris. The church itself is in much need of restoration, but still lovely to walk through and see all the chapels. And then went back to the restaurant "LE Golf D'Naples" for a lovely dinner with the first rude people we had ever encountered in Paris. Everybody we came across was helpful and nice until here - the food was exceptional however.

There are a few things we wanted to do that we did not, so Adrian and I will certainly be making a return trip to Paris.

Enjoy all the photos.

http://flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/

BIG NEWS

OK, so the biggest thing I have to share today is that we have Vonage, which gives us a US phone number at US rates and we can now call back and forth as if we were still living in South SF. So........ 650-204-9849 is our phone number, just remember if you are on the West Coast we are 8 hours ahead of you and on the East coast 5 hours. We would appreciate no middle of the night calls.

The house is coming along nicely and, we have not hung pictures yet, we need special equipment because....turns out the walls are cement - imagine our surprise when we tried to hang the first thing....it was pretty funny I have to admit. I am hoping to rent the appropriate tool and get them hung before our party on the 4th.

We took a ride along the coast this week and so I have loaded a few pictures, along with a picture of Oretta soaking up the sun on our patio yesterday and Jessie's new hair do.

I will have more to post after we return from Paris on the 2nd.

http://flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02

All is right with the world

On the 7th of June, Jessie arrived. It was so amazingly good to see her. She is settling in and we are now collecting applications and re-thinking when she will come over for school. It is looking like most likely next fall, they don't accept students in the spring semester the way we do in the States. It's all very different, they declare their major when they enter University (College is high school here) not allowed to change major's mid stride, but the course of study is much more focused and you only take those courses that pertain to your major so it sounds like its a bit easier in some ways.

We finally got internet here at the house yesterday (Thursday, June 12). It is so nice to not have to go find internet and just be connected.

The biggest news is that our stuff arrived on Tuesday. It will take me weeks to get through this chaos, but its pretty happy chaos. The kitchen is all unpacked and we have opened up lots of boxes - now stuff to sort through everywhere. All of our pictures made it just fine, some broken frames - a couple of other items broken, but so far not to bad. We will add pictures to the blog once things are more settled. It's nice to finally have our things around even if everything is a mess.

Last night went to dinner to meet some other women who have relocated to Ireland from America, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Hungary and England. It was at one of only 2 decent Italian restaurants around - the restaurant is called Holywell and is actually vegetarian. It was quite good and when we left to go home I thought it was 9:30, but in fact, it was 10:30 so as you can see it was a very enjoyable evening. I now have some new freinds who share the same frustrations about switching to the Irish lifestyle and can truly commiserate with me. It is a very different lifestyle and turns out that many of the things we Americans have been complaining about, (thinking them to be European issues), the other Europeans have also been complaining about. Its just crazy that Ireland remained so far behind the rest of Europe.

So that's the latest news and I'll sign off for today.